Dazzling Future

Many of Future’s titles performed well in the half-yearly ABC results – are you pleased with the performance? We’re very pleased actually, and for the official video games magazines we’re very, very pleased. We’ve got extreme growth across all three console markets, and when compared to struggling men’s lifestyle magazines our specialist media is a pretty rare success story. We are in a growth market but we’re driving our audience, whether it be through our magazines, or online. I’m very proud of Official Nintendo being up over 20 per cent year-on-year.

What do you think is the key trend for Future in these results?I think the key trend is that we’re showing growth across all the console markets and in each of the sectors in which we operate there is good news. We’re broadening our audience and we’re growing our audience base, particularly online, and very successfully. There’s plenty for us to be proud of – we’re delivering engaging content to a passionate audience.

What’s the secret to the success? I think the secret for us, as it always has been for Future, is that we deliver the best content on video games and we deliver it in a variety of different ways, whether it be through magazine, cover disks, online or through other digital initiatives we’ve got going forward. We’re growing our audience for our video games content and that has grown dramatically in the last five years. And video games magazines absolutely buck that negative trend.

Is integrating online and print a challenge for Future? Gamesradar Network is up to 7.3 million unique users and it’s been a natural progression for us. We’ve always done covermount discs so we’re used to delivering our content through different channels. It was a natural progression to move online. The way the consumer interacts with our content is changing, but the key thing for us is that we’re reaching more video game consumers than ever before.

What do you anticipate over the next six months for Future? I anticipate that we’ll see the upward trends and success continuing and I’m very positive about where we are. We’ve got different initiatives that we’re exploiting in the video games market and we’ll have new announcements going forward in terms of new digital projects. And we’ve got other initiatives in the PC market like the PC Gamer showdown, we’re expanding into MMOs and we’ve expanded our Nintendo portfolio with the Girl Gamer title, which is successfully exploiting that wider demographic.

As you point out, Girl Gamer is a different kind of title that has come about through gaming having a widening demographic – are there any similar opportunities that Future will be exploring? We are looking all the time at new opportunities to target that broader demographic, whether it be through traditional or online channels. We’ll certainly see some more new ideas come to fruition over the next year.

Any other highlights? What I would like to mention is that if you look at the ABCs as a whole, you can see how it compares with other titles and how powerful and resilient our media is in a difficult economic time. The content that we produce is what people want, and they are continuing to want our content because we are targeting them so effectively. For me the message is that we’re delivering content to millions of young men who are out there spending money.

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